Applicant believes that the closest reference corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,835 issued to Liss et al on Feb. 16, 1988. However, it differs from the present invention because this patented device includes a circuit that operates the infrared laser diode at a relatively high voltage with low pulse frequency. Also, while acknowledging or suggesting that the rise and/or fall time of the pulse may have an effect on the therapeutic effect of the above reference patented device, it nevertheless lacks any mechanism (electronic or otherwise) to optimize this parameter. In fact, the patentees acknowledge their lack of precise knowledge for the results obtained. Finally, in Liss' patent, the laser beam is applied specifically on the injury area with the consequent inadequacy for uniform treatment of systemic illnesses at a distance.
Other patents describing therapeutic devices that utilize the laser technology concentrate on the cutting and burning characteristics of these beams at their different wavelengths which are not the subject of the present invention. None of these patents suggest the novel features of the present invention.
Another related reference is the article written by Dr. Bjorn E. W. Northerstrom entitled "Biokinetic Impacts on Structure and Imaging of the Lung: The Concept of Biologically Closed Electric Circuits" and published in the September, 1985 issue of the American Journal of the Roentgen Ray Society. In this article, the concept of the Vascular-Interstitial Closed Circuit (VICC) is described. The VICC concept explains the different voltage potential drops observed by Dr. Northerstrom in the different tissues studied with direct electric current. This circuit comprises the entire circulatory system and through which the relatively low electric resistance of the plasma allows the flow of the direct current.
Another relevant reference in the related art includes the chapter authored by Dr. Anthony S-Y Leong entitled Microwave Irradiation in Histopathology in the volume 23, of part 2, of the Pathology Annual published Appleton & Lange, Norwalk, Conn. In particular, on the last paragraph of page 214 the author acknowledges the effect of field-induced alterations in macromolecular hydrogen bonding, proton tunnelling and disruption of bound water may induce alterations in biologic systems. This article, however, relates only to microwave fields.
For studies relating to lower frequency (ultra-sound on fractures) treatments, the closest reference known by Applicant corresponds to the article authored by A. A. Pilla et al in the Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. (IEEE Cat. No. 88CH2566-8), New Orleans, La. 1988.